UAV’s are one of those areas of technology that really opens a lot of doors for creativity, and for designers and manufacturers, there’s no better inspiration than the natural world around us. A team from Georgia Tech has been hard at work on mimicking the natural flying capabilities of a dragonfly, and with their new palm-sized TechJet Dragonfly, their work may have paid off.

There’s only one thing more worrying than a robot wielding a knife, and that is a robot wielding a knife that it knows how to use it. However in this instance, CIROS, a unit suitably fit for the kitchen, robot knife skills may be more helpful than we may have thought before.

That’s a big goal to achieve, but those behind Robocup want to work towards that goal. And their objective involves helping hundreds of young scientists every year by challenging them to create the best robot they can.

Most of us have at least heard of the TV show Macgyver before. You know, about the guy who can basically take just about anything and turn it into a true solution to a problem? Well, that's what Professor Mike Stilman and researchers at Georgia Tech are attempting to do with a robot creation of their own, aptly named the “Macgyver bot”.

Researchers at Harvard are working hard to advance one step closer towards finishing a development project involving a micro air vehicle named the Robobee. The robot, that is smaller than a coin, was already able to lift off using it’s own power source, but now it has added functionalities to help control it’s flight.

Animal robots have become quite commonplace. In fact, a robot that isn't designed after a human being or another animal would probably be more out of place. Today we are taking a look at a robot that uses four air-powered limbs that take inspiration from the body and design of an octopus.

The life of a firefighter can be awfully dangerous. Firefighters often put themselves in situations that are extremely risky, but there are times when the situation is just to dangerous for human life to enter.

The robot, which is mainly white in color, starts off looking like an average inanimate speaker until it catches you off guard and begins transforming into a fully-fledged humanoid. The Michael Jackson wannabe then starts grooving its body parts to the music as it plays sound through its rumbling stomach.

Recently we wrote about a robotic fish that was designed to mimic the swimming capabilities of a tuna, and could be used for spying and other government-related purposes. Now we have another robot fish, this one is aptly called the “Robo-Fish” prototype.

A group of Swiss researchers have created a new video putting their high-tech quadrocopter’s flying efficiency to the test. The three flying robots fly back and forth in recognition with each other, whilst each being attached to a three sided net. The intuitive copters can catch incoming balls by flying in formation to move the net accordingly. Once the ball is in the net, they are then also able to launch it upwards by quickly stretching out the net.

Robots are invading just about every aspect of modern life. They are helping with noodles, outrunning athletes and even replacing pack mules. This time around, they are making their way to our vineyards as well. French inventor Christophe Millot has created “Wall-Ye”, named after Pixar's own WALL-E.

The government seems forever fascinated by the idea of taking animal abilities and giving them to robots. First there was the DARPA cheetah and pack mule robots. Now we have a tuna fish robot. Yes, really.

When it comes to entrance exams, few are considered more difficult than the exam presented by Tokyo University. This is why scientists have decided to come together and see how hard the test really is by bringing in a unique student to take the exam- a robot. Fujitsu hopes to create a robot that can easily pass the exam, pushing A.I. Intelligence as far as possible along the way. Fujitsu is teaming up with Japan's National Institute of Informatics to develop this super-intelligent robot.

When it comes to phone returns, more than half the time it is because of faulty software, at least that is what T-Mobile claims. What's a mobile carrier to do about it? At T-Mobile the solution is to employ robots.

Not too long ago, Mobile Magazine reported on the world's fastest land robot, the very creepy and strange DARPA Cheetah robot. At the time it's recording-breaking robotic speed was set to 18MPH. The new land speed of this unique robot is 28.3mph for a 20-meter split.

Want your own personal bartender, but don't make thousands of dollars a day? How about a computerized bartender instead? You only need a few things like an Arduino board, the alcohol, the parts to assemble it and, well, the know-how.

Conspiracy theorists are already preparing for the impending Robot Apocalypse and, let's face it, Baby Affetto doesn't do anything to ease any tension or worry that some of us have about our robot-filled future.

More in line with my digital lifestyle would be something like the SmartPet. Winning the innovative toy category award at the Tokyo Toy Show, SmartPet essentially transforms your iPhone into a virtual pet dog.

Inspired by the way that insects can fly, fall, and easily pick themselves back up, the Laboratory for Intelligent Systems at Switzerland's EPFL federal research institute set out to create a flying unmanned aircraft that could do the same.

The “Smart Sand” project has tons of obstacles to climb over before it truly gets very far off the ground, but it is attempting to use large cubes, 12mm on each side, that can actually bind together to mimic real objects.

You've seen just about everything there is to see when it comes to RC cars, right? What about one that transforms instantly before your eyes to a dancing robot that has a pretty strong resemblance to one Optimus Prime?

On display at the Beijing Auto Show, the Qin is a plug-in hybrid car from Chinese automaker BYD. The car itself isn't terribly exciting as far as sedans go, but there is a little pop-up robot on the dash that serves as a central control point.

While we have robots like Asimo that attempt to mimic the bipedal nature of humans, robots that take on entirely different forms of locomotion can be so much more interesting. And the cool thing about the MorpHex robot is that it has more than one trick up its sleeve.

A robot on wheels isn't exactly the most exciting thing in the world, but the Sand Flea by Boston Dynamics has a very neat trick up its mechanical sleeve: it is capable of jumping a full thirty feet in the air from an absolute standstill.

What you see in the above picture is Robojelly, a robot jellyfish designed by the researchers at Virginia Tech, which could be very useful in the future for underwater surveillance or search and rescue operations. You might be thinking that there is nothing new about a robot inspired by nature, but the robot jellyfish has a new trick up its sleeve. Theoretically, the Robojelly will go on working without ever running out of energy, as long as it’s in water.

If you thought that the Big Dog was terrifying in motion (it was!), take a look at this new product from DARPA. The DARPA Cheetah is absolutely creepy when it starts moving, but it’s now the fastest legged robot on the planet and chances are you won’t outrun it.

What would you call a remote-controlled, six-legged robot toy (pictured above) for kids that can shoot all kinds of projectiles? Its designer, Jaimie Mantzel, is already calling it “The Greatest Toy in the Universe” (and we think that he might be right there), but he wants you to give it a cool name.

The heavy weight 710 warrior is just like its predecessors, just more versatile. It's more capable of performing a wide range of missions including EOD (explosive ordnance disposal), reconnaissance and surveillance.

They are currently testing robots called SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites) which actually have been around since 2006. The robots, having the size of that of a bowling ball, utilize CO2 thrusters to fly around the International Space Station.

The next time you walk in to a department store, you may not be greeted by a human, in fact, if Verizon Wireless has anything to do with it you'll be looking at a VGo robot. Presented at CES 2012, Verizon is aiming to enable 4G LTE devices beyond what we would expect with a typical smartphone or tablet.

Living in a world where gas and oil prices are certainly on the rise, Rudolph Behrens has come up with a theoretical solution for preparing/gathering biofuel. He has begun raising funds at Kickstarter for a 26x14 foot robot that uses a wind turbine with radial blades on top and a PV panel.

It turns out that "Surrogates", staring Bruce Willis, might not have been just a movie after all. For those who haven’t seen it, in the near future when people don’t interact with the environment themselves and instead have human-looking robots they control remotely do everything for them. Telesar V might not be nearly as sophisticated as the robots in Surrogates, yet the concept is still pretty similar. Telestar V is a telexistence robot system being researched by a group at the Keio University led by Professor Tachi. The idea behind the technology is having a robot you can remotely control.

Rotundus Groundbot, a dual-camera security bot which provides a 3D video feed is a new easy to manipulate automated surveillance tool presently being tested by government. Its interface is kept free from clutter to make the operation less complicated and this bot will roll around the ground spying on everything around it.

The most recent robot controlled by a smartphone is the Automated Music Personality (AMP) robot launched by OLogic. AMP is a two-wheeled, self-balancing robotic music player that can only be operated by an Android smartphone. OLogic has plans of shipping the robot for around $400 or less.

The Handroid is a robot hand developed by a Japanese company called ITK. It's a fully articulated robot hand with the same kind of dexterity as a human hand. Each finger can move independently and the hand as a whole is meant to be "sensitive" enough to be suitable for touching humans or handling fragile objects.

The Yotel chain of hotels are bringing in a new worker to their New York location. The hotel in New York will feature a robotic baggage drop-off machine. Touted as the world’s first hotel robotic luggage handler, “Yobot” loads and stores your luggage.

Visual artist Benjamin Grosser seeks to answer the question; can machines be original or creative? Grosser has created an Interactive Robotic Painting Machine that uses sounds from the environment to inspire its paint.